---
title: "Jitney — AP African American Studies Definition"
description: "Jitneys were small buses African Americans ran as informal taxis in segregated communities, a response to transit inequality tied to redlining in Topic 4.5."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/jitney"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP African American Studies"
unit: "Unit 4"
---

# Jitney — AP African American Studies Definition

## Definition

Jitneys were small buses operated by African Americans that provided informal taxi service in segregated communities, created in response to public transportation systems that were segregated, underfunded, or unwilling to serve Black neighborhoods.

## What It Is

A jitney was a small bus run by [African American](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/10-black-pride-identity-and-the-question-of-naming/study-guide/sCMCOOHW7DRtM6jH "fv-autolink") drivers that worked like a shared taxi, picking up riders along set routes in [Black neighborhoods](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/23-the-civil-war-and-black-communities/study-guide/izqwf48keJf083W0 "fv-autolink"). They emerged because segregated public transit systems either humiliated Black riders or skipped Black communities entirely. Instead of waiting for cities to fix the problem, residents built their own transportation network.

In [AP African American Studies](/ap-african-american-studies "fv-autolink"), jitneys show up in Topic 4.5 (Redlining and Housing Discrimination) because they are part of the same story. Redlining and housing segregation concentrated African Americans in neighborhoods that governments then underserved, including with public transit. Jitneys are the community's answer to that neglect. Think of them as transportation self-help, the same instinct that produced Black-owned banks, hospitals, and insurance companies when white institutions shut Black Americans out.

## Why It Matters

[Jitneys](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/5-redlining-and-housing-discrimination/study-guide/TvIrj3VpF15pA5cZ "fv-autolink") live in **[Unit 4](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4 "fv-autolink"): Movements and Debates**, under **Topic 4.5: Redlining and Housing Discrimination**, supporting learning objective **AP African American Studies 4.5.A**, which asks you to explain the long-term effects of housing discrimination on African Americans in the second half of the twentieth century. Here's the link. Housing segregation (codified in the FHA's 1938 Underwriting Manual) didn't just decide where people could live. It decided which neighborhoods got investment, services, and decent transit. Jitneys matter on the exam because they show the response side of that equation. Segregation created the problem, and African American communities built parallel institutions to survive it. That cause-and-response pattern is exactly what Unit 4 wants you to be able to explain.

## Connections

### Redlining and Housing Discrimination (Unit 4)

Jitneys only make sense once you understand redlining. When mortgage lenders and the federal government marked Black neighborhoods as risky, those areas got starved of public investment, including transit. Jitneys filled the gap that disinvestment created.

### [Fair Housing Act (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/fair-housing-act)

The [NAACP](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/naacp "fv-autolink") fought housing discrimination through legislation, winning the Fair Housing Act in 1968. Jitneys and the Fair Housing Act are two different strategies against the same system. One is community self-reliance on the ground, the other is legal reform from above.

### [Health Disparities (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/health-disparities)

Transit inequality and [health disparities](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/health-disparities "fv-autolink") are both downstream effects of housing segregation. Where you could live determined your access to buses, hospitals, and clean environments. Jitneys are evidence that geography shaped daily life in segregated America.

## On the AP Exam

Jitney is a vocabulary-level term you'll most likely see in multiple-choice questions. Stems tend to ask things like which transportation service emerged in African American communities to address transit inequality, or how residents responded to inadequate public transportation in segregated communities. The answer is jitneys, and the move you need to make is connecting them to segregation as the cause. No released FRQ has used the term verbatim, but jitneys work well as evidence in a short-answer or essay response about how African Americans built their own institutions in response to discrimination, especially when paired with the housing discrimination content in Topic 4.5.

## jitney vs Civil rights boycott carpools

Jitneys and boycott carpools (like the one during the Montgomery Bus Boycott) both gave Black riders an alternative to segregated buses, but they're different in purpose. Carpools were temporary protest tools designed to pressure a bus system into desegregating. Jitneys were ongoing small businesses, an everyday community service filling a permanent gap, not a tactic with an end date.

## Key Takeaways

- Jitneys were small buses operated by African Americans that provided informal taxi service in segregated communities with inadequate public transportation.
- Jitneys appear in Topic 4.5 because transit inequality was a direct effect of redlining and housing segregation, which concentrated Black residents in underserved neighborhoods.
- Jitneys are an example of community self-reliance, the same pattern as Black-owned banks and hospitals built in response to exclusion.
- Pair jitneys with the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to show two different responses to segregation, grassroots institution-building and legal reform.
- On the exam, the key move is naming jitneys as a response to segregated and unequal public transit, not just defining them as small buses.

## FAQs

### What is a jitney in AP African American Studies?

A jitney was a small bus run by African Americans that provided taxi-like service in [segregated](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/3-african-americans-and-the-second-world-war/study-guide/xDntAEXmjXPLXZMf "fv-autolink") communities. They emerged because public transit systems were segregated, unequal, or didn't serve Black neighborhoods at all.

### Were jitneys part of the civil rights movement?

Not exactly. Jitneys were everyday businesses, not protest tactics like the Montgomery Bus Boycott carpools. They predate and run alongside the civil rights movement as a form of community self-reliance rather than organized activism.

### How are jitneys different from regular taxis or buses?

Jitneys blended both. They followed loose routes like a bus but picked up individual riders like a taxi, and they were operated informally by Black drivers serving neighborhoods that official transit systems ignored.

### Why do jitneys show up in the redlining topic instead of a transportation topic?

Because transit inequality was a consequence of housing segregation. Redlining and the FHA's 1938 Underwriting Manual confined African Americans to neighborhoods that governments then underserved, and jitneys were the community's response to that neglect under learning objective AP African American Studies 4.5.A.

### Do I need to know specific jitney companies or cities for the exam?

No. You need the concept, that jitneys were African American-operated small buses providing taxi service in response to segregated and unequal public transit. Multiple-choice questions test that definition and its connection to segregation.

## Related Study Guides

- [4.5 Redlining and Housing Discrimination](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/5-redlining-and-housing-discrimination/study-guide/TvIrj3VpF15pA5cZ)

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